Department of Justice: If Disabled People Can’t Use Berkeley’s Free Online Courses, No One Can

The university will have to remove free online content that doesn’t meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Reason.com – Hit & Run Blog
Robby SoaveSep. 19, 2016

Harrison Bergeron should enroll at the University of California-Berkeley. The federal Department of Justice recently informed the university that the online content it makes available to the public free of charge runs afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act—blind and deaf people wouldn’t be able to access it, according to the government.

In response, Berkeley is considering simply removing the online resources, since that’s much cheaper than becoming ADA compliant.

You might say, well, Berkeley is a public university, and has a responsibility to make its resources available to all students, regardless of their disability status. That’s true. But here’s the thing: no Berkeley student has complained. The online courses have proven to be perfectly accessible to the entire student body thus far.

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